


stratification

by thewriterofperfectdisasters



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Archaeologists, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, I'm so sorry, M/M, absolutely niche as fuck but here we are, another fic where my major is Blatantly obvious and im not sorry for that (sorry), copious use of vaguely academic terms, is that even a tag? it is now i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 16:04:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17984285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriterofperfectdisasters/pseuds/thewriterofperfectdisasters
Summary: ‘I’m not concerned with triremes at all. The Olympias –’‘Is cool? A feat of engineering in the modern age? Makes you cry to look at?’ Damen suggested, adjusting his collar and putting his hands on his hips. ‘Is an important piece of experimental archaeology that helps us to better understand ancient marine warfare? All of the above?’Laurent scoffed, eyeing Damen as he slowly made his way to the door of Laurent’s hotel room. ‘What, are you like, horny for triremes or something?’‘I’m horny for history, baby.’aka, the rival archaeologists au that, surprisingly, twitter made me do.





	stratification

**Author's Note:**

> so. last night, i had a thought. about archaeology. (bc that's what happens when you're reading lecture notes _about_ archaeology, tho i don't think this is what my professor had in mind? oops.) i put this thought to [twitter](https://twitter.com/daamiaanos/status/1101775744466804736) and fully expected absolutely no one to be into it (except me, bc this is my niche) but? i woke up to like 10 notifs? bc of that thought? and im like bitch ok guess i gotta follow through. 
> 
> so here we are.

‘I don’t want to ruin the moment,’ Laurent said, groaning as he hitched a leg around Damen’s hip and moved his head to allow him the length of his neck, ‘but how do you know my brother?’

Damen laughed into the joint of Laurent’s shoulder. ‘We work together.’

‘You work together?’

‘Yeah,’ Damen pulled back, hearing the hesitance in Laurent’s voice. ‘Is that – that’s not a problem, is it?’

Laurent narrowed his eyes and slowly pulled his leg back down. ‘You’re one of _them_.’

‘One of who?’

‘Are you a _marine_ archaeologist?’ Laurent asked, curling his kiss-reddened lips around the word like it disgusted him.

‘Yes?’ Damen frowned. ‘Why?’

‘Oh, I bet he’ll _love_ this,’ Laurent hissed, placing a hand on Damen’s chest and pushing lightly.

Damen stepped back and allowed Laurent to move away from where he was pressed against the wall. ‘Am I missing something here? Why did you say it like that?’

‘I’m an _archaeologist_. A terrestrial one. Did my brother say anything about that?’

‘You’re both archaeologists?’ Damen asked. ‘That’s, uh, interesting.’

‘You’re both just… glorified _treasure hunters_. You don’t study the stratifications, you just take everything out and don’t do things properly.’

Damen raised his eyebrows and slowly rebuttoned his shirt. ‘I think “properly” is relative. The point is to preserve things, and once I _touch_ something, the rate of degradation rapidly increases, and it needs to be brought up because the environment is disturbed.’

Laurent narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring that his shirt was falling off his shoulder. ‘You take things out of their place and throw caution to the wind. You all think you’re the next Indiana Jones, but you’re _not_.’

‘Neither are you. He doesn’t use a grid.’

‘You _don’t care_.’

‘Laurent,’ Damen said flatly, ‘I do this job _because_ I care, and despite what you… _landlubbers_ think of me.’

Laurent blinked in shock. ‘Landlubber? What the fuck are you, a pirate?’

‘Comes with the treasure hunter title, doesn’t it? We go and take things out of the water that _you_ don’t want to touch.’

‘We’re not allergic to water. We just have a process.’

‘When you ignore everything that’s past the line you guys have drawn in the dirt, you’re missing vital information about how cities functioned, like the flow of trade from submerged shipyards, detritus washed out after storms, and – you know what else? One day, we might find a trireme, and you will still be debating the number of oars and rowers.’

Laurent rolled his eyes. ‘Oh please, if people were _that_ concerned with triremes, they’d build another like the Olympias.’

Damen clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. ‘Tell me you’re not shitting on the Olympias right now.’

‘I’m not concerned with triremes at all. The Olympias –’

‘Is cool? A feat of engineering in the modern age? Makes you cry to look at?’ Damen suggested, adjusting his collar and putting his hands on his hips. ‘Is an important piece of experimental archaeology that helps us to better understand ancient marine warfare? All of the above?’

Laurent scoffed, eyeing Damen as he slowly made his way to the door of Laurent’s hotel room. ‘What, are you like, horny for triremes or something?’

‘I’m horny for history, baby.’

‘You – wait,’ Laurent said, as Damen opened the door. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

‘Well, you clearly don’t want to sleep with me anymore, because apparently the fact that I do what you don’t want to is just too much to handle.’

‘No, you just don’t care about _order_ ,’ Laurent said, tilting his head. ‘And I’m definitely not above a hatefuck.’

‘Oh, so you _hate_ me?’ Damen asked, unimpressed. ‘Here was me, thinking we’d had a nice time tonight, and apparently you –’

‘I don’t hate _you_ ,’ Laurent interrupted, crossing the room slowly. ‘Just what you stand for.’

‘Which is?’ Damen said, watching Laurent close the door pointedly.

‘Chaos,’ Laurent said, lifting his hands and start to unbutton Damen’s shirt again. ‘Disorder. Complete disregard for –’

‘For the stratifications and properly studying every layer to discern how they interacted?’

‘Yes.’

Damen caught Laurent’s hands as they went for his last button, drawing his attention back up. ‘Do I really need to explain to you _again_ how stratigraphy is difficult underwater because of the impact of tides and that terrestrial stratigraphy is easier because the layers can be much clearer?’

Laurent leaned up and whispered into Damen’s ear, lips brushing his skin, ‘I just don’t think you’re trying hard enough.’

‘And I think that’s an unfair evaluation,’ Damen replied. ‘Your brother must hate you if this is how you talk to him whenever you see each other.’

‘Our parents have banned the talk of land versus water,’ Laurent shrugged. ‘And don’t talk about my brother when I’m trying to get my hand in your pants.’

‘That’s very forward of you.’

Laurent laughed, taking a step away from Damen. ‘A moment ago, you were trying to get your hand in _my_ pants.’

‘That was before you started insulting my profession,’ Damen pointed out.

Laurent made a noncommittal noise and shrugged out of his shirt. ‘I’m not saying I don’t respect what you do, I’m just saying it annoys me.’

‘Oh, is that all?’ Damen deadpanned.

‘And besides,’ Laurent dropped his shirt to the bed and came back to Damen, undoing the last button and pushing his shirt off his shoulders, biting his lip at the expanse of skin he hadn’t been fully appreciating a moment ago. ‘I think if you didn’t want to be here, you wouldn’t be.’

‘You know,’ Damen cautiously put his hands on Laurent’s hips. ‘Auguste told me you’d be a challenge.’

‘I bet he did.’

‘Auguste is –’

‘Oh my God,’ Laurent groaned, covering Damen’s mouth with his hand. ‘Shut up about my brother.’

Damen frowned and make a noise of protest into Laurent’s hand.

‘Do you intend to fuck me any time this century? Nod or shake your head.’

Damen huffed and nodded.

‘Good, then let’s – _ugh_ ,’ Laurent took his hand away and grimaced at the spot Damen had licked. ‘Gross.’

Damen laughed and pushed him to the bed. ‘Shut up and let me show you how we do it underwater.’

‘Oh, so now you’re Aquaman? Is that –’

Laurent was cut off as Damen climbed onto the bed and better occupied his mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> uh so that was that. for more classics rants, trireme horniness, and general bullshit, you can follow me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/daamiaanos) or if u are still vaguely floating around on tumblr (like me), then [i'm there too](http://damiaanos.tumblr.com).
> 
> also, just so we're all on the same page - the olympias is a full size, fully functioning, reconstructed trireme ([here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcsrNrRkQis) a video of the sea trials!) which is neat af bc no _actual_ triremes have actually been found yet! as of the current knowledge surrounding triremes, we don't know precisely how many rowers or oars were used bc the numbers in ancient sources and ledgers vary and oar numbers stated may have included spares and stuff like that, and rower numbers could have included reserves or whatever, so the olympias provides some key insight to how it might've worked! as well as this, it also lets us explore how marine warfare was waged, and how manoeuvres like the diekplous (through a line of enemy ships) and periplous (around them) worked.) (wow this reads like an essay my bad yall.)


End file.
